Losing recordSuffolk DA Dan Conley says the low homicide-arrest rate in recent years is the result of a more careful process of developing evidence — a change made largely in reaction to revelations of wrongful convictions in older cases. “We don’t ever want to go back to the days when people were arrested on the basis of hunches and street rumor,” he says.

But to date, there is little evidence that Conley is developing better cases than his predecessors did.

In Boston, of those murders that have taken place since Conley became DA, 61 have resulted in a trial verdict or guilty plea. Of these, prosecutors won a first- of second-degree murder conviction in nearly half, and a manslaughter or lesser charge in almost a third, with the remaining 20 percent ending in acquittal.

Compare that with the previous administration. The biggest change: fewer manslaughter pleas, more acquittals. Our chart suggests that more Boston murder defendants, looking at the strength of the DA’s case against them, are willing to take their chances in court — and they’re winning.

In Boston’s sharp-elbowed political world, when anything goes wrong — whether it’s the stalled waterfront development, rising school-dropout rates, or post-playoff rioting — assigning blame usually takes top priority. Everyone in public office can expect a certain amount of criticism, some fair and some not.

But District Attorney (DA) Dan Conley is a rare phenomenon: a Boston pol who is seemingly inculpable. That’s especially striking, given that he’s served as the city’s top elected law-enforcement official during a depressing regression into high homicide rates, widespread fear of violence, dismal arrest rates, and high-profile acquittals.

Even a Boston Globe article this month that examined a continuing lack of convictions in Boston murder cases, pointed fingers at jurors, television shows, court delays — everywhere except the prosecutor’s office.

As the city’s homicide rates have soared, Conley has largely escaped the criticism that has been leveled at Mayor Tom Menino, three Boston Police Department (BPD) commissioners, and community and religious leaders. “He’s always skated,” says one City Hall insider. “He’s always left out of the blame.”

To top it all off, he ran unopposed this past year for re-election to his second four-year term as Suffolk County DA.

Some argue that the prosecutor’s office can’t be fairly criticized for rising violence and falling arrest percentages, a view Conley shares. “We’re lawyers,” he said in an interview with the Phoenix this week. “We don’t have the power of arrest. We don’t patrol neighborhoods.”

But in Massachusetts, DAs are, by statute, responsible for homicide investigations, and in Suffolk County they help direct the show from the start. In fact, many local observers now agree that the rise in violence has been fueled in part by the low arrest and conviction rates in those investigations, a combination that has left murderers on the street, and removed the fear of doing time for their crimes.

Shades of Keeler The storied career of Sergeant Detective Daniel M. “Mr. Homicide” Keeler may finally be at an end.

The overtime game The problems haunting the Boston Police Department’s homicide unit — low arrest rates, cases rejected by juries, and exonerations of wrongfully convicted men — did not occur in a vacuum.

No end in sight Two years ago, Boston’s law-enforcement leaders were crowing over their defeat of the homicide problem. In retrospect, it was Boston’s version of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished.”

The punch that took two lives When he was 17 years old, Joseph Donovan made the first of two stupid, and even reckless, mistakes. On the evening of September 18, 1992, in a brutish act of machismo, the East Cambridge native and minor-league delinquent punched out Norwegian MIT student Yngve Raustein.

Charges against former UMass student to be dropped A Mattapan man's 28-month legal ordeal ended in a Northampton courtroom last week, as the Northwestern District Attorney's office agreed to drop all charges against him pending an additional two months of incident-free pre-trial probation.

Justice is blind David S. Bernstein’s willingness to ignore the truth in order to advance his own agenda is utterly disgraceful.

Blues and blood Something is rotten in Beantown — and the stench is emanating from the local branch of the Department of Justice.

Worst homicide squad in America Boston was riveted last week by a paralyzed little girl, Kai Leigh Harriott, who publicly forgave the man who fired the shot that put her in a wheelchair.

Framed? The Boston Phoenix has uncovered substantial new information about the Cowans case.

Death penalty possible for Watland Gary Watland, the brilliant and mentally ill convicted murderer whose 2006 scheme to have his wife smuggle a loaded handgun into the Maine State Prison in Warren was foiled when another prisoner tipped off officials, faces a possible death penalty if convicted of a second murder.

MRS. WARREN GOES TO WASHINGTON | March 21, 2013 Elizabeth Warren was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, aside from the chair and ranking minority, to show up at last Thursday's hearing on indexing the minimum wage to inflation.

MARCH MADNESS | March 12, 2013 It's no surprise that the coming weekend's Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have become politically charged, given the extraordinary convergence of electoral events visiting South Boston.

LABOR'S LOVE LOST | March 08, 2013 Steve Lynch is winning back much of the union support that left him in 2009.

AFTER MARKEY, GET SET, GO | February 20, 2013 It's a matter of political decorum: when an officeholder is running for higher office, you wait until the election has been won before publicly coveting the resulting vacancy.